Dynamics of Faith
is one of Paul Tillich’s most important works. It’s a great starting point to
understanding Tillich’s philosophy and theology. Perhaps the most intriguing
aspect of the book is how Tillich redefines faith. It is similar to how many
philosophers like to start with an Archimedean Point. With a reinterpretation
of the definition of faith as an ultimate concern, Tillich begins
systematically lay out a foundation for what he thinks faith actually entails.
Following the existential tradition, Tillich believes living
beings are naturally concerned about things, with existence being above all
others. Humans, different from other beings, also have spiritual concerns that
can be categorized into “cognitive”, “aesthetic”, “social”, and “political”
(Tillich 1). Some of these concerns are more important than others, and above
them all exists the ultimate concern. With the ultimate concern comes the
ultimate demands; necessary steps and sacrifices must be made if “the national
group makes the life and growth of the nation its ultimate concern (think WWII
Germany)” (Tillich 2). However, it is also the promise of an ultimate fulfillment
that ties it all together into an “act of faith” (Tillich 2).
To break it down plainly using an example, success is the
ultimate concern and god of many people around the world. Tillich says that as
an ultimate concern, its ultimate demand is the “unconditional surrender to its
laws even if the price is the sacrifice of genuine human relations, personal
conviction, and creative eros” (4). Its ultimate promise is the fulfillment of
one’s being.
“Faith is the state of being ultimately concerned. The
content matters infinitely for the life of the believer” (Tillich 4). This is
different than the popular definition of believing in something unbelievable. It
is with this understanding of faith that Tillich starts to systematically build
what he calls the dynamics of faith.
Tillich, Paul. Dynamics
of Faith. New York: HarperOne, 2009. Print.
Hi Yufei!
ReplyDeleteI'm excited to learn more about Tillich through your paper! The assumption that faith can be more quantifiable than "something unbelievable" is a really interesting concept (I could be understanding what he is saying wrongly though).
Cory
Thank you, and yes it is. Faith and beliefs are not the same thing for Tillich. He says "one of the most ordinary misinterpretation of faith is to consider it an act of knowledge that has low degree of evidence" (36).
DeleteVery interesting definition of faith. I'm not quite sure I understand it though. Are you/Tillich saying that faith is more of a deep concern than an actual belief?
ReplyDeleteThat would actually make a lot of sense. We have plenty of beliefs in our daily lives that we wouldn't say are faith based, so we should have some criteria for what faith actually is other than believing something.
I believe tomorrow is Sunday. There is no faith aspect to that at all. Therefore, belief ought not to be in our definition of faith.
Very interesting, I had never considered faith to be anything other than belief before now.
You got it. "One believes one's information is correct. One believes that records of past events are useful for the reconstruction of facts. One believes that a scientific theory is adequate for the understanding of a series of facts" (Tillich, 36) are just some of the examples Tillich uses. So, if this is faith, then most of our knowledge is based on faith according to Tillich.
DeleteThat has some very interesting implications for epistemology. Perhaps K=JTB (Knowledge as justified true belief) is not a sufficient definition considering that the only instance of K=JTB where we can see that something is clearly a true belief is the Cogito. Everything else seems to be more probabilistic.
DeleteYufei,
ReplyDeleteWhen we've spoken about your project before you've mentioned that Tillich attempted to construct a 'systematized theology', now I see what you mean by 'systematized theology'. Unsurprisingly, this raises at least one question to me: Are these categories of concerns hard and fast? By that I mean, are there ideas/concerns that fit into more than one category? Or might it be possible to understand a single spiritual concern from multiple angles, or through different categorical lenses?
Also, where I can see Tillich's idea of faith as both a stronger way of conceiving faith than what appears in everyday life, I am confused on about the distinction between 'personal conviction' and 'ultimate concern'. How can these be separate? Also, if they are separate, that seems to imply that you can reason to an 'ultimate concern' which seems to be non-existential to me. What am I missing about this?
I think Tillich created the categories to be inclusive because part of his argument is that everyone is concerned about something. Since concern is also faith, everyone has faith. From what I have read so far, he has not brought up the categories again.
DeleteWhat do you mean by 'personal conviction'?
Tillich does not think you can reason to an 'ultimate concern'. He borrows "the unconscious and the conscious" concepts here from analytic psychology and says "Faith as an act of the total personality is not imaginable without the participation of the unconscious elements in the personality structure" (5). This "act of the total personality" is an important component to Tillich's dynamics of faith. Faith is something that encompasses both reason and emotions.